Brazil Rejects Amnesty in Nicaragua to the Murderer of Rayneia Lima

The Government of Brazil condemned and deplored on Thursday the amnesty granted to Nicaraguan ex-military Pierson Adan Gutierrez Solís, sentenced to fifteen years for the confessed murder of Brazilian university student Rayneia Gabrielle Lima, which occurred a year ago.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Brazilian Government “condemns and deplores, with the greatest vehemence, the decision of the Nicaraguan justice system to grant amnesty and release the confessed author, sentenced to fifteen years in prison for the murder of the Brazilian doctor” in Managua.

For Brazil, “this measure demonstrates the deterioration of the institutions in Nicaragua and verifies the model of a systematic violation of individual guarantees and fundamental rights in that country.”

The Foreign Ministry recalled that such violations in Nicaragua “have been denounced by Brazil before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS and before the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.”

Brazil “reiterates to the Government of Nicaragua the need to immediately restore all citizen guarantees of a full rule of law, so that the country can return to the democratic coexistence with the international community.”

On Wednesday, the executive secretary of the IACHR, Paulo Abrao, rejected the amnesty granted in Nicaragua to the ex-military.

“Serious violations of human rights cannot be subjected to an amnesty procedure,” Abrao said on social media, who recalled that as a rule this type of legal forgiveness does not apply in cases such as that of the Brazilian.

A Managua Appeals Court ordered this week to release Gutierrez under the controversial self-Amnesty Law, passed urgently last June, by the National Assembly, controlled by the Ortega governing party.

Gutierrez, an expert in weapons and martial arts, had been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the crime of homicide and one more for carrying and illegal use of firearms.

The Court also ordered that the criminal record of the ex-military be erased for such crimes.

During the trial, which was held behind closed doors, Gutierrez said he shot the 30-year-old Brazilian because she was driving erratically on a street near one of the residences of Francisco Lopez, the Treasurer of Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

The Amnesty Law is rejected by the opposition in Nicaragua, because it considers that it is a government strategy so that the crimes committed during the crisis go unpunished.